The present invention relates to language training. More specifically, the present invention relates to improved methods and apparatus for fluency training in spoken human languages.
Prior art solutions for fluency training in a spoken language have been via synchronous conversations between language teachers and students. Such conversations are considered synchronous because of the real-time interaction between the language teachers and students. Such training has been typically carried out by face to face classroom situations or other types of meetings such as over the telephone, via a video link, and the like.
Drawbacks to synchronous conversation include that it requires both the language teachers and students to coordinate their schedules so they can practice. This drawback is especially large where the teacher and the student are widely geographically separated. As an example, it would be very difficult for a language teacher in New York to continuously communicate with a student in Tokyo.
Another drawback is the difficulty for students in a geographic areas to find a large number of language teachers in a desired language also in the same geographic area. For example, the number of language teachers in Ethiopian is not believed to be very high in Waco, Tex.
Another drawback is that it has been found that synchronous conversations often place students under a high amount of stress. Accordingly, in such situations, students tend to use easier and simpler phrases while speaking, and thus students do not develop or practice more complex phrases. As a result, the students do not readily achieve the fluency in the language they truly desire.
Another drawback is that synchronous conversation is more expensive because the teacher needs to be paid while the student is thinking/speaking and repeating, etc.
Another solution for fluency training has been through the use of audio tapes. In particular, language teachers and students record messages on audio tapes, and pass the tapes to the other party. For example, a language teacher will record a message on an a tape and pass the tape to the student. The student in turn picks up the tape, listens to the tape, records a message for the language teacher, and passes the tape to the language teacher.
This solution has the same drawback as other solutions. In particular, it limits the language teacher and the student to be in roughly the same geographic area so that many messages can be exchanged. If the language teacher and the student are too far apart, the round trip time between taped messages would be quite long, thus fluency would be obtained very slowly, if at all.
Other drawbacks to prior art solutions have been that the language teacher must perform two different roles. In particular, the language teacher must be both a conversation partner and a language teacher. As a teacher, the language teacher must instruct the student as to proper use of the language, and as a conversation partner, the language teacher must provide conversation that is entertaining and interesting to the student. However, most language teachers often find the former role is much easier to play than the latter. For the students, finding a language teacher who is both a good teacher and an interesting conversation partner greatly restricts the number of qualified language teachers to choose from.
Another drawback to the two different roles the language teacher must play is that paying a language teacher to play a mere conversation partner is not cost effective. For example, students can usually find conversation partners among their friends, and the like. Yet another drawback is that when students converse with teachers, it often alters the students' psychology of the interaction because the students know the teachers will correct the students' mistakes. As a result, the conversations tend to be simpler and less complex, and again fluency is difficult to achieve.
Thus, what is required are improved techniques and systems that enable language fluency training.